Greater participation of MSMEs boosts domestic, global trade: Piyush Goyal at G20

Tokyo: At a meeting of the G20 Summit, Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Piyush Goyal said that greater participation of the medium and small scale enterprises (MSMEs) in developing countries, like India, will boost the domestic as well as the global trade.

"A greater participation of MSMEs in developing countries will boost both domestic and global trade because they are crucial for jobs and income generation on which the livelihood of millions is dependent," Goyal said.

Goyal made the remarks on Saturday while participating in the G20 ministerial meeting on Trade and Digital Economy, held in the Japanese city of Tsukuba.

The meeting focused on the ways to promote trade and cooperation among the G20 countries in order to harness the potential of the digital economy.

The Minister also noted that a large number of nations are still struggling to effectively integrate into the global trading system which raises doubts about their efficacy.

"When we are committing ourselves to promoting trade and investment in a sustainable and inclusive manner, a critical linkage between financial capital and human capital needs to be recognised," Goyal said.

"Many developing countries, which may be efficient in human and financial capital, a synergistic relationship between the two will benefit all countries by making investments more productive, efficient and cost-competitive," he added.

Goyal further stated that any deviation from free trade and investment benefits that fit developing countries as long as they remain 'development-centric' is the main reason for increasing disparities within and across nations.

The G20 trade ministers' deliberations form part of the G20 summit leaders agenda in the formal discussions and will also be a part of the summit declaration.

Ever since G20 was formed, India has been actively participating in the meetings. Although there are no binding commitments in G20, it sets the agenda for multilateral trade relations.

Over 50 trade and digital economy ministers participated in the discussion of how G20 economies can promote trade and investment and maximise benefits from the development of digital technologies to ensure sustainable growth of the global economy.

The Trade and Digital Economy meeting is one of the eight ministerial meetings taking place in Japan alongside the 2019 G20 Summit.

The G20 members represent two-thirds of the world's people and 85 percent of its economy.